Even Dems Succeeding Trump In Power Won't Restore Allies' Trust

2025-07-04 12:01:29

(MENAFN- Asia Times) Just six months after Donald Trump's return to the presidency in the United States, it feels like there has been a sharp break with America's post-war diplomatic legacy.

The Trump administration has been steadily making announcements that upset the established order, including reviving a proposal to purchase Greenland without ruling out military action . American officials have publicly spread pro-Russian narratives and have escalated protectionism by introducing tariffs , often announced unilaterally and suddenly, which fluctuate according to the president's moods.

What do these developments tell us about the American ability to structure the international order in light of the fact that the US has been the dominant player in the global system in recent decades?

As a researcher at France's ENAP specializing in international relations theory, I believe that it marks a significant step in the emergence of counter-hegemonic powers and, by extension, that it signals a weakening of American power.

Decline that is nothing new

Many see Trump administration's recent choices as a sign of the“beginning of the end” of American hegemony. But there is nothing new about this discourse.

The idea of a US decline has been circulating regularly in academic and strategic circles since the Cold War. As early as the 1980s, British scholar Susan Strange challenged this“declinist” view, insisting that the true strength of the US lay not just in its economic or military power but in its central role within major international institutions and strategic alliances.

It was this structuring role - rather than material superiority alone - that guaranteed its dominant position on the world stage. After the end of the Cold War, the question of decline was largely set aside: French Minister Hubert Védrine declared the US a “hyperpower” for the way it concentrated all the means of global domination.

Since the mid-2000s, the debate on the decline of American hegemony has returned with a vengeance, fueled by the rise of countries such as China, Russia, India, Brazil, Iran and South Africa.

However, since then no consensus has emerged within the academic community about the nature of the international system (unipolar, bipolar, or even multipolar).

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